Campbell River mayor claimed most in expenses in 2016; Victoria mayor highest paid

Campbell River Mayor Andy Adams claimed the most expenses of any municipal elected official on Vancouver Island in 2016 – $17,485, according to each city’s Statement of Financial Information for 2016.

He also had the fourth highest salary of any mayor on the Island, coming in at $62,551 behind Lisa Helps in Victoria, Richard Atwell in Saanich, and Bill McKay in Nanaimo and the fifth biggest population base after Saanich, Nanaimo, Victoria and Langford.

“Last year was a little bit different…there were a couple of things that were occurring that had me very busy attending a lot of different functions,” Adams said. “Where travel expenses would have shown up in economic development and tourism for 2016, they showed up with me.”

The debate surrounding how much of the taxpayer money elected officials take home is ongoing. Each year municipalities are required to release a Statement of Financial Information outlining remuneration and expenses of elected individuals as well as government employees paid over $75,000 a year. The Campbell River Mirror decided to compare the different salary levels paid elected officials on Vancouver Island.

Though on the higher end of the spectrum for overall pay, Adams is in the middle of the pay scale per capita at $1.92 per person in our city which has 32,588 people according to the 2016 census.

The highest paid mayor, per capita, is Dianne St. Jacques in Ucluelet at $16.98 per person in her town of 1,717 people. However that only adds up to be $29,158.46 per year.

The lowest per capita pay was Atwell at $0.87 per capita in the city of 114,148, which is the largest centre on the Island, totalling $99, 363.

As is the case with Adams, a few city councillors also sit on the board of their Regional District.

Adams was paid $16,204 from the Strathcona Regional District in 2016 and reimbursed for $25 worth of expenses.

The highest paid regional district chairperson on the Island in 2016 was Bruce Jolliffe at the Comox Valley Regional District. That is also the second highest pay per capita of the Regional Districts on the Island at $1.14 per person.